Photo Albums

Until tomorrow, (Friday, Feb. 29) you can download Charles Bock's "Beautiful Children" for free. It's Bock's first novel, and it has some industry excitement and good reviews surrounding it.

Thanks, Karen, for the reminder to go download the book! We'll see if I can actually read a novel electronically. We'll also find out if I can read a novel with a 12-year-old who goes missing, with Payne barreling towards 12 every day.

I watched "Once" during deer season while the boys were away. Not a Farmer Boy movie at all, but a nice little independent film. Loved the music, so I was thrilled "Falling Slowly" earned its Oscar last night. It is a lovely, lovely song, and was performed so sweetly last night.

Every now and then I give in to my cheesy inner teenager. Once such indulgence is the Twilight series. Good news for the much-younger me:

Happy Valentine's Day, belated. Although the boys were not in school yesterday*, here are the valentines we threw together last weekend:

*We were in San Antonio for the San Antonio Livestock Show. Results? Payne was pulled, but not penned. In other words, he took the slow lane to the sale truck. Or maybe not. His pig might be used in the livestock judging contest this weekend.

January was quite the zippy month for us. Free time was not to be found; rather time not at school or work was occupied by the swine in our lives. Feeding them, walking them, bathing them, and clipping them.

Our county stock show (please - those of you who have known me all my life, stop snorting at me. Can I help it that I married Farmer Boy and have happened to learn to deal with embrace all that comes with it? Seriously - stop laughing at me.) was at the end of January. Payne showed 3 pigs, plus participated in the photography and homemaking divisions. Jackson was still too young to participate this year. He spent the weekend running around the showgrounds like a young heathen.

Payne and the pigs did well. He ended up only showing 2 himself - his 2 crosses were in the same class so Jillian had to show one for him. The cross she showed tanked - it developed some issue with its hip and couldn't walk at all the morning of the show.

The all-black cross ended up 3rd. She was an unusual pig, and we weren't sure how she would do. She really stressed out one day back in November when he was walking her, and completely shut down. Since that episode, Payne had to be careful and easy with her. He showed the heck out of her, and the judge really complimented him on his showing. (When you show a pig, you walk around in the ring and attempt to steer your pig so that the judge can see it as much as possible, using a whip of some sort. You want to keep your pig off the fence and out of the corners.)

His Yorkshire (think Babe) was one of the lightest pigs in the entire show. She barely even made the bottom weight limit to get in. But Little Miss Diva did get in. There were only 2 classes of Yorks (divided by weights - her class was 215 lbs - 243 lbs) and I thought she would be outgunned by the bigger pigs. But the little Diva was one heck of a pig. She won her class.

Then it was time to decide the best York. Payne and the winner of the larger class were the only 2 in the ring. They showed for a while before the judge picked the bigger pig as Grand Champion York. Out comes pig #2 from the second class. The judge starts talking about that other pig in a way that sounded like that one would be the reserve. Then he starts in on Payne's pig, and declares him the Reserve York. Yeah!

Now all we have left in the pig barn is one ugly red-belt cross. Very strange looking. Payne shows him next week in San Antonio.

What else happened in January? Oh yeah - the Saturday night of the auction, we arrived home to 8 newborn puppies. Our dog Scout, the promiscuous little tart, was taken advantage of by a dog from down the road, and is now a mamma dog. Any one looking for a lab/rottwieller mix? We have a few to give away.....